


Lost Notes

by chopstickpup



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Happy Ending, Humor, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Pining, Secret Crush, Slight Cliffhanger, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26152819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chopstickpup/pseuds/chopstickpup
Summary: Natsuko nodded with a smile, “Exactly like that!” A hand raised to cover her mouth as she chuckled a little, quietly hidden. This boy really was sweet.The blonde boy interrupted whatever Tetsurou was about to say next. His hand was tugging vigorously on the sleeve of his shirt, his uniform voice drifting over the soft chatter of the crowd easier now.“Hey. The show is over. Can we head out now?” he questioned as Tetsurou’s head tilted back with a sigh.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	Lost Notes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a commission for a very wonderful person and I had so much fun writing it. I was never super into this fandom but it was very interesting deep diving into it for the last three days. I'm satisfied with what has happened and I'm excited to share and hope that everyone else loves this as well! Have fun on this wild ride of fluff and stuff. <3

# Lost Notes

The cherry blossoms fell around her as the teenager made her way through the stalls and booths. She couldn’t help but feel excited; the whole air around her just buzzed with the emotions and voices of the surrounding people. It was spring time! It was a wonderfully fun and special time of year. Besides the fact that it was the start of the school year. 

There was chatter and music all around; something that sent a thrill through Natsuko’s heart. A smile played at the edges of her lips and her brown eyes looked around at everything, struggling to take it all in. She wanted so much to just run up to every booth and dive right into whatever they were offering. Games? Yes. Music? Of course! Food? Definitely. Especially if there were sweets? 

“Ooooh! What is that?!”  
A small stage captured Natsuko’s attention - one with a handful of people dancing on it. She made her way through the crowd to get a better look, standing on her tiptoes to be able to see over the heads of those in front of her. Or at least the shoulders! Her smile widened as she watched the group perform, soft little exclamations of excitement and wonder escaping her as they did their performance. Was Nekoma always so spectacular? 

Natsuko could only grin, swaying from foot to foot in an attempt to get the best view possible. Her attention was taken for a moment as a tall, spikey haired boy stepped in front of her, blocking her view completely. A soft, wounded sound came from her. 

“Hey!” her voice rose up, a slight pout on her lips. 

Hazel eyes looked back at the girl, a playful smirk on his face for a moment. Her upset seemed to take him slightly aback, however, and he paused. Looking back at the stage for a split second, he sighed and scooted over. His hand gestured for the girl to step up beside him instead. 

“Come on. It’s a better view up here,” he offered, watching Natsuko hesitate for just a moment. “Don’t worry - my friend doesn’t bite.” He laughed, throwing an arm around a shorter boy who grunted. The second boy’s hands fell, struggling to keep ahold of the phone that he had nearly been pressing his face to, seeming to be huddled into it as if he didn’t want to be there. 

Natsuko couldn’t help but bite her lip, trying not to laugh even a little bit. She stepped forward with a slight bow and a soft, “Thank you guys.” Her hands clung tightly to the messenger bag that was slung across her body, a little nervous to be standing so close to a couple of the high school stars. When she first saw them, there was that twinge of familiarity that she couldn’t have placed. But once the taller boy had spoken, it just seemed to click. 

She had seen them before, of course! They were part of the volleyball club! Who hadn’t seen them before? Natsuko glanced back at the pair of boys as she heard the shorter one’s voice, monotone yet still somehow giving life to just how annoyed he was, rise as he spoke, if only to be heard over the din of the crowd. Natsuko struggled to remember their names, watching the pair of them interact. Her head tilted, a soft smile coming to her face as the taller boy shushed his friend, trying to encourage him to just be happy - that was what the festival was for! The blonde-ish boy, the one whose dark roots were showing quite a bit; he seemed to scoff, his eyes flicking to meet Natsuko’s for a second - if that - before he huddled down and on his phone again. 

Natsuko could feel heat rising to her face, her head twisting to look back at the stage. But her mind wasn’t at all on the performance anymore. They were cute, both of them. The boys beside her. And they seemed sweet, even if what she had witnessed could be considered an argument by some. It didn’t seem like it to her, not really. It was almost like two brothers interacting, giving a back and forth about how much the other cared about them. 

Her dark eyes glanced upwards toward the boys again for a moment before she tried to turn her full attention back to the stage. Her heart pounded in her chest as she saw that the spikey haired boy - oh, what was his name!? - was looking at her with a cat-like grin. Natsuko bit her lip again, facing forward and concentrating all of herself onto the performance. So much so that it wasn’t until the end of his sentence that Natsuko realized that he was talking to her. 

“…’cuz I mean, it’s pretty awesome to see someone on stage, isn’t it?” 

Her head turned back to the boy, confusion sprawled across her face for a moment before she nodded, a little absently. Was he really talking to her? Why was he talking to her? omg. Omg! 

“Y-Yeah! It… It really is,” Natsuko’s voice came out a little wistfully, dragging herself from the stage to the boys again. “I… I would love to be on stage like that one day. Oh! I’m sorry; my name is Natsuko.” 

“Oh?”  
The spikey haired boy paused for a moment, looking curiously down at the girl before he grinned again. “I’m Tetsurou. You’d want to be on stage like that, huh? That would be freakin’ epic. What do you do? Dance? Sing?” 

“Oh. No, no,” she said, head shaking and hands gripping her bag strap tighter. “I could never sing. No. I just… I play guitar. Like… Bass guitar.” 

“Awesome!” 

Tetsurou grinned at the girl, reaching out a fist to bump it into her shoulder. “That’s amazing. Have you thought about joining the music club? I dunno if it’s your thing or not but maybe they could help you get on that stage?” 

Natsuko hesitated for a moment, looking surprised before she offered her own smile. “Yeah. I’m a part of that club. It’s a pretty fun space, y’know? I want to join band, though. Like… a proper band one that does things outside of school.” 

The tall boy nodded knowingly. He knew the feeling. “I’m sure that you’ll get there,” he offered, making the girl smile happily. “It’s kind of like wanting to join a professional league, yeah? You just have to keep trying. Keep practicing. Keep getting better.” 

Natsuko nodded with a smile, “Exactly like that!” A hand raised to cover her mouth as she chuckled a little, quietly hidden. This boy really was sweet. 

The blonde boy interrupted whatever Tetsurou was about to say next. His hand was tugging vigorously on the sleeve of his shirt, his uniform voice drifting over the soft chatter of the crowd easier now. 

“Hey. The show is over. Can we head out now?” he questioned as Tetsurou’s head tilted back with a sigh. 

“C’mon, Kenma. Why don’t we stay just a little longer? It’s not that bad. There are some things that are at least somewhat interesting for you, aren’t there? There’s a tech booth around here somewhere, isn’t there?” Tetsurou questioned, glancing around quickly hoping to find something to keep his friend around. 

Natsuko, amused, pointed out in a direction off to their left. “I think there was the computers and science club doing something over that way,” she offered. Golden eyes looked surprised, but pleasantly so, as they turned toward the girl for the slightest moment before Kenma dropped his gaze back down to his phone. 

The softest, “Thank you,” came from the bicolored headed boy before he turned in that direction and started weaving his way through the crowd. 

“Sorry,” Tetsurou said, glancing back at Natsuko. “He’s… not very good with crowds and events. I’m trying to get him more into it, though. He’s not mean, he’s just….” The boy paused, struggling to find the right words. 

“He’s got some anxiety. It’s fine,” she said, shrugging gently with a smile. “It happens. Besides, he doesn’t seem like a bad kind of guy.” 

Tetsurou sighed, a look of relief coming to relax his shoulders. “Thanks. I should probably go after him and make sure he doesn’t disappear somewhere,” he said, waving at the girl as he trotted after his friend. He paused, though, and turned around with a grin, “Hey! Natsuko. Maybe we’ll see each other later!” Turning back, he continued after his friend and disappeared into the crowd. 

Natsuko sighed, watching them leave with a soft smile and a shake of her head. Boys. They were all sorts of odd, weren’t they? Too bad the quiet one was anxious; he was sort of cute. But that’s how it was, wasn’t it? Tetsurou seemed nice, though. 

The girl wandered the stalls, picking up some snacks along the way. She found her own friend group and wandered with them a while too, chatting and smiling and having all kinds of fun. The festival was a beautiful thing, and there was really nothing that she didn’t like about it. Except the fact that it finished, eventually. The festival lasted until the early evening, and as things wound down, Natsuko couldn’t help but feel a little wishful. Every day being a festival day could have been amazing. Truly. Maybe a little tiring, but fun, she concluded. 

Maybe except for people like that Kenma boy. No, maybe regular school time was also necessary. She guessed. Besides. If ever school day was a festival, when would she have time to practice? 

Her feelings and thoughts, and even the interaction of making new friends with the boys on the volleyball team, were all spilled into her journal that night. She was satisfied. The day had been amazing. 

> ###### 

Natsuko couldn’t say that she didn’t think of the boys again. That would be lying if she were to say that. But in the days after their meeting at the festival, she couldn’t really bring herself to hunt them down and find them just to be awkward friends with them. She had resigned herself, instead, to simply waiting for that chance opportunity to eventually present itself. While wistfully hoping every day that fate would throw something at them that would have them clash. 

Not that Natsuko had to wait very long. 

The music club, the wonderful little club that it was, had decided about a week after their festival day that they wanted to do something big for the next festival. Something that would make them stand out and look awesome. And that meant, luckily for Natsuko, that they got to sit around and write music. 

She loved it. How could she not? Being able to write music for a whole group of them to play something totally epic? It was almost a dream come true! 

“Why don’t we sit outside and write?” someone suggested. “There’s a really nice place of benches and trees behind the courts at the south end of the campus.” 

Natsuko was one of the many voices to agree with the sentiment. It was a gorgeous day outside and there was no reason to waste that by sitting inside of a stuffy old classroom. She walked with the group, chattering and smiling as they made their way across the campus. The sun beat down gently, warming them, making Natsuko shrug her jacket a little looser against her as they traveled outside. 

The voices from the building they passed - the courts they were supposed to end up sitting behind, if she was reading the signs right - drifted softly through the air to them. So did the squeak of shoes on polished floors. It was a peaceful sort of ambiance in the background, keeping things lively. Natsuko heard a few mumbled mentions about it, a couple of complaints, but the majority of the group figured that it wouldn maybe help them rather than sitting in the silence of nature. 

“I dunno. I think it’s cool. Maybe it’ll inspire us,” she offered, smiling at the rest of the group. Some of them nodded and others shrugged, but they all seemed too pleased to be outside in a pleasant spot to really argue for them going back to the classroom. 

Besides. These were the volleyball courts; the place where they practiced and did their thing. That meant that this could be the fated second meeting that she had with those really nice boys from the team! There was no way that she was going to just let that go. 

“It’ll keep us from nodding off, at least,” someone else huffed, his eyes rolling. She ignored him, though, passing him and waving her arm for the others to follow. There was a beautiful bench and sitting area just beneath the trees. In the mid-spring colors, it looked almost like walking into a mystical spot. If there was anything that was going to help them, it would probably end up the magic of the place they sat, not the noises of the building they were sitting beside. 

Natsuko was the first to the round stone table, the first to shrug off her instrument bag. She leaned her bass against the table carefully, not wanting it to get any more banged up than it already was because of being outside. It was such a special thing to her, this scratched up piece of wood and metal. It might not have looked like much, but it was the entire world to her. Natsuko’s fingers dragged over the case gently for a moment before she plopped down on the stone and patted the spot next to her to show that it was open. 

The others gathered around, instruments put down around the table and notebooks out. Pencils scratched on paper and they traded ideas; What should their song be about? Should their song have lyrics? What sort of instruments should be included? Does this make them a band? Would they keep going after this one song?

As the time passed longer and longer, the less and less Natsuko’s attention ended up on the music at hand. Her soft brown gaze had drifted to the closest window to her, maybe a handful of feet away. She could see the boys inside, gym uniforms and shorts, all running around the volleyball court. Tetsurou’s voice seemed to be the loudest, and her eyes fell on him as he called out sharp orders; 

“Nice! Good block, Inuoka. Switch with Teshiro; let’s work on some receiving!” 

The boys switched out, with most of the team on one side of the net while the last two were on the others. They served balls, watching them fly across the room as they hit and hit back. The volleyballs flew true most of the time, and it made Natsuko wonder how much practice could possibly lead to that sort of precision. How many hours had it taken them to achieve those sorts of gameplay? How many times had they failed and gotten up to play again? 

Natsuko noticed someone was missing, though. That two-toned hair guy - Kenma. He wasn’t grouped up with the rest of the boys. Her eyes wandered the room, or what she could see of the room through the small window, looking for him. Was he sick? She worried a little, having already counted him as a friend of hers with Tetsurou and the others of the music club. 

“Oh,” her voice came out softly, rather bemused, when she found him standing at the corner of the court and not at all paying attention to the practice in front of him. He was, instead, glued to his phone the same as he was when she had met him at the festival. Those wonderful golden eyes that she just knew held more in them than he was ever letting out stuck on the screen of whatever he was doing. Playing a game? Natsuko wondered what game could be keeping his attention so well during something that he must be passionate about. 

“Are you staring at the volleyball boys?” a voice questioned, softly teasing as Natsuko’s head spun around in surprise. Her face went red, voice sputtering. 

“N-No!” she lied, defensive and squeaking. A few of the group chuckled a little as the first girl who spoke up shrugged and smiled. 

“It’s okay. They’re nice to look at. That Tetsurou Kuroo is something else.” 

“Yaku is pretty cute!” another girl pipped up, leaning forward onto her hands as her elbows rested against the table. She sighed as another spoke up, nodding in agreement, “And Inuoka!” 

Nastuko giggled, hands rising to cover her face as she did so. Hearing them all say things like that made her feel better. Even if the boys of the group simply rolled their eyes and complained quietly amongst themselves. She really appreciated the support. One of her friends scooted closer to her, leaning in with bright eyes. 

“Well,” she questioned, “Who do you like the most?” 

Nastuko hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the window. She could see that Kenma was now being engaged, though she couldn’t hear exactly what his quiet voice was saying. But he seemed to step on the court at last, his phone left off by his water bottle at the edge of the court. She saw a difference in him as he stood there, the practice around him seeming to bring out a different side of him. The way he moved, the way he acted, the way he almost seemed to take charge of the court. He was the centerpiece in their function; it seemed, anyway. Everything had to go to him, to run through his hands, to make it over the net by his choices. 

It was such a tremendous change, but an interesting one. Maybe that’s what he was passionate about? 

“Natsuko?” 

“Oh,” she looked back at the group, shrugging gently. “I mean, all of them are pretty cute in their own way, aren’t they?” 

She got a giggling response of nods, though the girl closest to her elbowed her gently and egged her on more. “Well, yes, but come on. There has to be at least one that you, yknow. Liiiiike.” 

Natsuko flushed a little, glancing at the window again. “I kind of… I mean. Kenma? The blonde- and brown-haired one, with the golden eyes. He’s so… interesting.” 

“Really?” one of the girls asked, tilting her head. 

“The setter? He’s super mysterious!” another fawned, waving her hands in front of her face. 

“Oh my god, stop,” Natsuko said, trying not to smile as her friends continued, pushing the girl next to her gently. Amused, she shook her head. “They are really nice.” 

“You’ve talked to them!?” her friend questioned, mouth dropping open to look at her in surprise. “Oh. My. God! When? How? What did you talk about? Why?!” 

“We… um. Well, Tetsurou sort of… helped me get a better spot at the festival concert last week,” Nastuko explained, shrugging as if it wasn’t a big deal - who would ever really want to be with her? She was the most boring person who she could possibly think of. “Kenma was with him. He talked to me, mostly.” 

“I am sooooo jealous!” 

“Yeah! I wish that I could just run into popular guys!” another pipped in.

Her hands rose again as Nastuko laughed a little, eyes scrunching up. “You could always go in there and say hi. I think the practices are open for people to just go watch if they really want,” she said, offering a sweeping arm at the building. 

The girls of the music club looked at each other before they all grinned and nodded. “That sounds like a wonderful idea!” they agreed, standing almost in unison. They grabbed Nastuko, and they all made their way to the volleyball building. 

Nastuko couldn’t help but feel nervous. What if she was wrong? What if, instead of being nice, the boys were actually just trying to have a nice face in public? What if they weren’t actually allowed to be in the building for practice? What if they got in the way? 

The door opened, so it was unlocked, though as the sound of the big metal door opening echoed through the building it made the game on the court pause. The ball still flew through the air, smacking Inuoka in the head as he looked, surprised, at the gaggle of girls that made their way into the gym. Red faced, he scrambled after the ball as if it had knocked him out of his stupor. 

“Hey! Hi. How are you girls doing?” Tetsurou’s voice spoke up with a swagger that matched his step as he walked up to them. “What brings you girls into this place?” 

With most of them giggling, it seemed to be up to Nastuko to be the voice of reason. She gave a sort of apologetic smile and offered a quiet, “We… uh. We wanted to watch you guys play a little?” 

A smirk made its way across Tetsurou’s Kuroo’s face, turning into a grin as he turned back around to the team. “Alright boys. Now we’ve got a reason to get fired up! Let’s do a game! Four on four! Kai, Yamamoto, Inuoka, Teshiro. You guys on the opposite side! Kenma, Yaku, Fukunaga, you’re with me!” 

The girls squeed quietly as the Tetsurou jogged back onto the court. Natsuko’s brown eyes watched Kenma as he sighed and avoided looking at the group of girls, finding his spot by the net. He seemed on edge and nervous, almost like he was when they were at the festival. Her eyes hardly left him as the game started, and she felt her heart race in her chest every time the ball came to him. She wanted him to do well. She wanted his little team in a team to win. She didn’t know why, she just… did. 

Natsuko’s hands rose to her mouth for every gasp, every point. She got more caught up in the game than she thought she’d be. It helped, of course, that Kenma’s team was winning, though. The ball flew through the air and even her Kenma seemed to get more relaxed as the game went on; it seemed like the more he could concentrate on the thing he was doing, the less he seemed to notice that there was something around him that made him uncomfortable. It made him shine. And it made her heart ache to see more of this boy. 

The mini-game ended with many cheering hearts from the group of girls, and a lot of sweat and grins from the boys. High-fives were exchanged and a small argument about who had caused who to lose were thrown out. But it seemed to all be in good faith nonetheless. 

“That was great,” one of the girls said, breathless and excited. 

“It was,” Natsuko agreed, smiling. “You all did amazing! Thank you for letting us watch that. It was a lot of fun.” 

Kuroo grinned, wiping his face off on a towel and leaning down against Kenma as he drank from a bottle to look at the girls. “Hell yeah it was. It’s always better to play with someone watching, huh, Kenma?” 

“If you say so,” the other boy mumbled, frowning a little. He looked so much like he wanted to just run away. Nastuko felt her heart go out to him. His golden eyes looked up to meet her brown ones for a moment, and the girl felt her heart swell. She looked away, face red, words tumbling out from her mouth before she could stop them.

“Y-You did… so good!” she said, held in suspense by those beautiful eyes. As he looked away, a giggle from behind her struck her out of her own little world. “All of you!” she squeaked out, face feeling like it was burning as he looked back to to Kuroo who had a brow quirked at her. “You all did so good! I can’t wait to see you guys play a proper game!” 

“You guys should get front row seats!” a voice came from behind the captain and setter, the rest of the team coming up. The girls beside her started to talk too, though to Natsuko it seemed distant as her attention fell once more onto the cute blonde setter. The noise behind her seemed to flux in and out as she wondered about the boy. 

Why was he so shy? What had happened to make him get into volleyball? What else did he like? …would he ever even talk to someone like her?

Probably not, if she was being honest. But maybe she could hope, right? 

The girls bid their goodbyes as the team left to go get washed up for the evening. Giggling and talking with quiet excitement about what had happened. Natsuko let herself be led away by the group, her mind filled with other things as they walked. 

It wasn’t until later that evening, when Natsuko was at home and getting ready for bed, that she realized she had forgotten something very, very important. Her journal was still on the stone table outside of the volleyball courts. 

> ###### 

When Natsuko couldn’t find her journal outside the next day, she didn’t know what to do. A panic had swept through her. How could she be stupid enough to let something that important out of her sight? Out of her grasp?! Oh, god, she was just going to die. She just wanted to curl up some place and become invisible until this all washed away. 

Someone was going to find it, and with it, it would reveal all of her secrets to the world. What would she do when someone dropped the ball on all of her deepest ideas and secrets? What would she do when someone posted her songs and laughed about them? Oh, she would have to leave school. Go to a different one! One in a different city! A different country! 

Natsuko leaned her head against the window of the train as she rode it home from school. Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath before sighing it out. She had to calm down. She had to. Breathe in. Breathe out. She couldn’t let this be the end of her world. She wouldn’t. Right? 

Maybe she had left it at home. Please, she pleaded quietly, hoping some sort of a powerful entity in the world could hear her and help her. Maybe she had brought it home and just didn’t remember, and it was sitting under her bed or something. Anything. Please. 

Tearing her room apart, Natsuko still couldn’t find the book. With a groan and a sigh, she resigned herself to her fate. Tomorrow at school would probably be the worst day that she would remember it being. She had no doubts about that at all. She lay on her bed and closed her eyes, pressing her hands into them until she could see dark spots in her vision. She would have given anything for that book back. It was her diary and her journal, where she kept all of her songs she wrote, her secrets, her thoughts. It was the thing that was her best friend when she was alone, and the thing that let her vent all of her hopes and fears and worries without judgement. She could live if she had to get a new one, but not if the contents of the older one were spilled all over the school. 

It was at eight thirty in the morning when she had made her way into homeroom. Her head was down, dark red hair covering her face. She didn’t want anyone to see her. When her feet stopped at her desk, however, her dark brown eyes fell onto something familiar. The soft, worn leather cover of the journal that had been missing for two days. It lay right there, in the very center of her desk. 

Looking around the room, she saw only her classmates chatting and interacting as they normally did. No one was staring at her, no one seemed to be talking about her and her dire most secrets. Natsuko fell into her chair, a hopeful wave of relief crashing over her as she took the book in her hands and held it to her chest for a moment. Her eyes closed and her head tilted back as she murmured the softest of thank you’s to the universe. 

Dread built a little in her chest as she put the book back down on her desk for a better look. The thing about it was, the little ribbon that was supposed to hold her place on what page she had been writing on last was… well, it wasn’t where she remembered it sticking out last, to be honest. That… could be bad still. That could be very bad. But. But now, at the very least, the book was back in her hands. It was hers, and she had it. 

She bit her lip and drew in a breath before opening the book. There it was. The little yellow ribbon sitting on the page. It was at the beginning of the book instead of at the last page that she had written on. Weird. Maybe it was because whoever had found it had dropped it and it had slipped out? Natsuko hoped that was the case. 

She flipped through the pages, seeing the words that she had written staring back at her. The little pictures that she had pasted into the journal still looking as if she had taken them that morning. It was a wonderful thing, going back through all those memories. When she reached the end, her brows knit together, confusion and worry putting lines across her face. There was writing in here that… wasn’t her own. This wasn’t her handwriting, this wasn’t her voice when she wrote this… must have been the person that had found the journal in the first place… 

Hey. Uhm. I found this outside of the volleyball courts - on that little table outside under the trees. I think you were one of the music group that had come in to watch us. I saw you guys out there before you came in. I know this is probably weird, but I just wanted you to know if you really need some help with the second boss in Bioshock Infinite you can find an ammo and health cache near the southern pillar pretty early on. Just have Elizabeth unlock it for you. 

Natsuko blinked. And then again, her head shaking a little. This… This person, whoever had found her book outside had… left her… gaming advice? She was so confused, but… thankful? It was really good advice, if she was honest. 

Oh. And PS - Skye is definitely the best ACNH villager. You’re not wrong. She is pretty awesome. If you want to, you can add me on Switch and we can trade fruits. I’ve got an island with pears. SW-0866-4319-1882.

She laughed. Natsuko couldn’t help it. The whole idea of someone having found her journal and reading through it and then having the audacity to ask to be switch friends. Who was this person? Who has such a bold thought process and yet still couldn’t have given her the journal in person? 

Her brown eyes roamed around the classroom for a moment, looking at all of her classmates until the bell rang. She couldn’t think of anyone in her class that was like that; she talked to all of them regularly. It wasn’t like any of them were super distant friends. They weren’t all super close, but neither were they not friends at all. Natsuko liked to think that she could be friends with anyone. And so far it seemed pretty accurate, if she said so herself. 

As soon as she got home, Natsuko put in the friend request for this mysterious person. Her eyes lit up when she saw the screen name they had chosen for themselves: Kodzuken. He wasn’t really that smart if he was trying to hide his name. But maybe he wasn’t. Was he really wanting to be- wait. 

Wait. 

Wait. Wait. Wait. 

Kenma didn’t read her journal, did he? Like. ALL of it? 

“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh. My. God!” her voice came out in a panic. Why? Why him? Of all the people!? Couldn’t she have had one of the other volleyball boys pick it up? Why was it, of course, the one that she had written about in her diary!? Nastuko felt her heart twist in her chest, her stomach aching at the idea of him finding out about her stupid crush because she had written something about it on a stupid piece of paper that she had left outside. 

The first thing she did was post on her notice board, hoping that he would read it whenever he got to her island. 

_I am so sorry._

What else could you say? 

The first thing that he did after he had accepted her friend request, though, wasn’t to go to her island. He made her wait. Though whether he had meant to or Natsuko was just being anxious, she couldn’t tell. But her gates were open for him whenever he did decide to show up. 

She didn’t even notice when her new switch pal ended up coming over. At least, not until the plane cinematic was about halfway through. Her attention had been solely on the pokemon game she had in her DS. 

__

_hi._

__

It was the first thing that was typed when he had finally arrived. The little box popping up on the bottom left of her screen with a pleasant little ding. Natsuko hesitated before typing out her reply. 

__

_hey_

__

And then another, a question this time

__

_You’re really the one who found my journal, huh?_

__

She waited, heart racing as she heard the other’s character running around. After a moment it stopped and the island was silent save for the sound of the rain pittering and pattering against the ground.

__

_yeah. i’m glad you got it back. i was worried that i might have left it on the wrong desk._

__

Natsuko chuckled a little, smiling at the tv. Her heart fluttered a little as another line popped up from him. 

__

_i really like your island. it’s pretty. you did a good job._

__

_Thanks! I’ve played… waaay too many hours, really, lol._

__

_nah. there’s not really a too many, is there?_

__

_I guess not. Not if you’re enjoying it._

__

_that’s what games are for, aren’t they?_  
_here. you mentioned in your notebook that you needed the last two fruits, right?_

__

_Yeah. Pears and Apples._  
_Hey, did you… read my whole diary?_

__

_that was your diary that you’d left outside?_  
_you really should take better care of that._

__

_Yeah. I know._

__

_nah. i only skimmed thru the last couple of pages so i could figure out who it belonged to._  
_you’re part of that music club, right?_  
_the one who watched us practice?_

__

Natsuko made a nervous noise, a soft “ahh” coming from her as she tried to figure out how to answer. He really remembered her- no, them? Of course he would remember them, not her. And, more importantly, what were even in the last few pages in her journal? It didn’t have what she thought about him, did it? Oh fuck, she hoped not. She quickly typed out a “Yeah.” hoping that Kenma would take his time responding while she flipped through the journal on her bed frantically. 

_Oh thank god. All that was in the last few pages were lyric ideas that she had tossed for the club’s next festival activities. She took in a deep breath, looking back at the tv._

__

_cool._  
_i thought so. you were the only girl in the group that was normal._

__

_What do you mean by normal?_

__

_oh. yknow._  
_not trying to make it seem like everything we did was the most amazing thing._

__

_You guys -did- do good during practice, though._

__

_i guess._

__

Natsuko was silent and confused as she read his lines, frowning a little at the tv. Even over technology he seemed distant. She wondered if that was just his whole personality. Or maybe he was gay? Or asexual? Aromantic? 

__

_Do you wanna talk about something else?_

__

She offered a new subject. Any subject, really. He didn’t seem enthusiastic for someone who was on a sports team. From what she had seen, everyone else who had been on a sports team - it didn’t even matter what sport - at school was way overly enthusiastic about it. Except Kenma. 

__

_what other sort of games do you play?_

__

_I’ll try anything once, really._  
_I’m not the best at games, but the ones with the good stories are the best._

__

_you tried Firewatch?_

__

_I’ve seen someone playing that! On Youtube._  
_It looks really cool._

__

_you should really experience the story yourself_  
_it’s really breathtaking._

__

Once they had found something to talk about - and talk about it they did - Natsuko was online with him for hours. By the time the second hour had rolled passed, she hadn’t even picked up her controller to play the game anymore. All of her dailies were done, and she didn’t even care to play. Not when she was talking about one of the things that she loved the most. Videogames. 

The passion that Natsuko had expected to see on the court from this boy - It all seemed right here. Online. In the space between real and fiction. About Pokemon, and what they meant to the people who trained them. What was really the idea behind the series? The stories that it brought forth. The ideas and love that was behind the Stardew Valley game. What it meant to keep a mmo going.

By the time the girl looked at the clock, it was already two in the morning. 

__

_Oh jeeze! I’m sorry._  
_I didn’t realize what time it was._  
_I probably should have gone to bed forever ago, omg_

__

_lol. don’t worry._  
_if you gotta go, go_  
_but hey_  
_if you want_  
_you don’t have to but if you want_  
_here’s my number. text me sometime. ___

____

__

____

Natsuko thought she was going to faint. Kenma. Kenma? Giving her his phone number? omg. Omg! OMG! 

____

A soft squeal came from her as she rolled around her bed, stuffed animals of all varieties falling out of her way as she flailed around. She couldn’t believe it! Even if all he wanted to do was talk video games, that was still amazing! She had only dreamed of this happening. Was this even real life? Had she fallen asleep and dreamed this whole thing up? Because that’s what it felt like to her.  


____

__

> ____
> 
> ###### 
> 
> ____

__  
_  
_

Days had passed since the star setter of Nekoma had given her his phone number. The more time that passed, the more he seemed to be opening up. Natsuko was both happier and sadder than she had ever been in her entire life. 

____

She was happy because, omg, the cutest boy on the volleyball team was talking to her. But, at the same time, every single time she asked if they might, who knows, meet up somewhere and chat, or if it might be okay for her to swing by the volleyball court for her to say hi he would always… avoid. Avoid the question. Avoid answering. 

____

She almost thought he was afraid of her. Except that he kept on talking to her about whatever it was that they decided to talk about that day. It had expanded from talking about video games and ideas and music to… more than that. Natsuko felt as if she could talk to him about anything. Or. Almost anything. Except being able to hang out. 

____

It was because of this that she doubted the text that came to her this morning. It was because Kenma had been so… not standoffish necessarily, but not exactly excited to make new friends, that this text in front of her was so… weird.

____

__

____

_hey Natsuko. wanna come to the coffee shop in Shibuya? the one that has the library attached? tonight. seven._

____

__

____

“What. What? Did… Did he really just…” words were lost on her. How could he… Did he get held up at gunpoint to ask her this question? Was something wrong with his computer that he needed help with? And if so, why her? She was a music kind of girl, not a computer type. She wouldn’t know the first thing about fixing - ahh. Maybe he needed help… researching? That had to be it. That was totally it. That was the only thing that Natsuko could think possibly be it! 

____

Her fingers hesitated over her screen. If she said no, then she might never get another chance like this. He was so rare to go anywhere that wasn’t the volleyball courts or… well. Classes, as far as she had seen. 

____

But at the same time, was this really him asking? Was this his version of a prank? Did his friends set him up? Was it because of how she looked, oh god, what if they were all just messing with her this whole time? She couldn’t have dealt with that. 

____

Tears pricked her eyes at the very thought. How cruel could you be to do something like that? Kenma… Kenma wouldn’t do that. Not the Kenma that she knew. No. Right? He wasn’t an ass. His friends could be sometimes, but not him. 

____

__

____

_Yeah! Of course. I’d love to._

____

__

____

Was that too excited? Natsuko hoped not. She held onto her phone for a moment before fidgeting and tossing it off to the side. It bounced off of her bed, falling into the lap of one of the stuffed little animals that lay there.  
What was she supposed to wear? Was this a date? Was this a prank? Should she just wear her school uniform, or would that look too weird on a weekend? 

____

Settling on a striped shirt and jeans, Natsuko glanced at the clock. She still had an hour to go. But she couldn’t just sit here and do nothing while she waited. So she made her way to the thing that could always make her feel better. Her bass. Plugging headphones into the amp and then into the guitar itself, she turned it on and then placed the headphones over her ears. Natsuko’s brown eyes closed as she strummed, feeling her shoulders relax and her muscles loosen. If ever she wanted to calm down, this was definitely how she did it.  


____

__

> ____
> 
> ###### 
> 
> ____

__  
_  
_

Seven o’clock. The time shown brightly from the digital clock that hung behind the coffee bar, flickering only when the baristas happened to pass in front of it. 

____

“Come on, dude. You’ll be fine. She’s a nice girl, and you’ve been talkin’ to her for a while. It’s a quiet place. Honestly, if you liked her that much you should have asked her out on a date a long time ago. It’s like your stringin’ her along if you keep this texting shit up,” Kuroo said, leaning over the table to pat his friend’s shoulder. 

____

“I promise, you’ll love this. It’s a quiet place. Look,” his hand left Kenma’s shoulder to wave around the room. “It’s basically going to be almost just the two of you. How can you be afraid of that? You need a girlfriend. Natsuko’s perfect! You guys can be nerds or something together. It’ll be great.” 

____

Kenma scowled at his friend, golden eyes narrowed in an uncharacteristic look of anger. Of all the people, his best friend had decided to set him up on a blind date. Of all people! Kuroo knew that he hated being out in public like this. It was just so… awkward. There were too many people, too many eyes. Everyone seemed to be staring him down. 

____

“Maybe.” 

____

“Oh my god. Kenma. What the hell does ‘maybe’ even mean!?” 

____

“It means maybe,” the smaller player shrugged. 

____

Tetsurou sighed, groaning as he pushed himself back, head tilting back to look at the ceiling. “You are so hard to play nice with sometimes,” he complained. “Trust me?” 

____

Kenma’s golden eyes looked at his friend up and down for a moment, sighing as he did. He could see the hope in those hazel eyes and thought for a moment about how Natsuko had made him feel while talking with her. It was nice to have that connection with someone. To have that someone that he wasn’t afraid to talk to - but what it was was only online. What if that connection didn’t extend to the boundaries of the real world? He would look stupid. 

____

What if she was completely different in person? Like one of those giggling girls who didn’t know how to shut up or couldn’t talk about games without having to google the answers? 

____

…then it would mean that Natsuko cared enough to google those answers, right? 

____

“She’s coming dude. I’ll be over there, okay? If you really need to bail, just tug on your ear. I’ll call you with an ‘emergency’,” Tetsurou’s air quotes encased the word, and he stood up, smacking his friend’s shoulder. “Good luck, dude. You got this!” 

____

For her part, Natsuko looked just about as nervous as he felt. He hesitated for a moment before his hand rose up into the air for her attention. 

____

“Over here,” he called out to the girl, waving for her to come sit down beside him. 

____

She scurried to him, a smile on her face. A nervous smile, but a smile nonetheless. It was cute, and she sat carefully across from him. Surprise seemed to shine from her eyes, seeing that Kenma was actually here. She had expected… well. Natsuko wasn’t at all sure what she had expected. 

____

Her hand rose to tuck her hair behind her ear, offering a shy smile to the boy across from her. “Hey,” she offered gently, nervously. 

____

“Hi. I… I’m glad you showed up.” 

____

“Me too! Did… uhm. Did you want some coffee or anything?” 

____

“Oh! Yeah. I’ll buy something for us. What…. What would you like?” he asked, pulling out a small wallet as he looked at her. “Anything is fine.” 

____

“Are you sure, Kenma?” 

____

“It’s not really a big deal. It’s just coffee,” he said, nodding. Standing, he moved to get into the small line, making two orders of iced coffee - probably the best thing to drink during the summer. As he came back with the drinks he sat one down in front of her and took his seat again, finding that having something in front of him to fiddle with made things a little bit better. 

____

“So…” 

____

The awkward silence between them hung thick for a moment. Natsuko, however, pulled out a DS from her pocket. “You like Pokemon, right?” she asked, offering a small smile. “If you have yours on you, we can battle?” 

____

“Yeah. Yeah, I… I’d love to! Do you have Pokemon Black? That one is your favorite, right?”

____


End file.
